Symphonies of Iowa February 3 and 4, 2013

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony’s opening concert of their eighty-third season begins with selections from Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, a semi-opera adapted from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Composer and singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane joins the WCFSO for a performance of his recent work for baritone and chamber orchestra, Crane Palimpest. The program closes with Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, which he summarizes in his autograph score:

“Pastoral Symphony, more an expression of feeling than painting. First piece: pleasant feelings which awaken in men on arriving in the countryside. Second piece: scene by the brook. Third piece: merry gathering of country people, interrupted by the fourth piece: thunder and storm, into which breaks fifth piece: salutary feelings combined with thanks to the Deity.”